Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Taipei 101 Aims To Be World's Tallest Green Building

Taipei 101, Taiwan. Image from google images

TAIPEI, Jan 17 Asia Pulse - The Taipei 101 skyscraper, a landmark in Taiwan's capital, is expected to become the world's tallest green building by the third quarter of this year at the latest, its management said Saturday.

The company that manages Taipei 101, also known as the Taipei Financial Center, has filed an application with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for a platinum-degree certification so it can be recognized as the world's highest green building, Hsu Chao-fa, a manager of the building, said.

The building had been the world's highest building from 2004, when it was officially ranked as such, until the inauguration of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai last year.

Hsu said the building has invested NT$4.83 million (US$166,348) in energy conservation and the move has paid off by enabling the building to save about NT$12.42 million in electricity bills a year.

As early as 2008, the building's management had seriously considered how to make the building more energy efficient and it had taken a series of coordinating measures to achieve energy savings and carbon dioxide emission reductions, Hsu said.

In addition, Hsu said, the building also changed its lighting to energy efficient systems and began using ultra red ray sensor control equipment, which cut energy consumption by 9.6 per cent between 2008 and 2010.

The manager added that the building's management watches closely the temperature each day to adjust air conditioning systems, while adopting time control to manage lighting.

The owner of Taipei 101 is among the business operators in Taiwan to echo the Ministry of Economic Affairs' goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

The ministry successfully convinced the local business sector to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.93 million tons last year, which created about NT$1.8 billion in economic value.